Papers by Author: F. Felli

Abstract: The process involving cold rolling and annealing of Al-steel-Al sandwiches allows to produce an alloy containing more than 7 wt.% of Al. Unfortunately many α-Al2O3 scales tend to spall during thermal cycling because of thermal expansion mismatch between the alloy and the scale. Small additions to the ferritic stainless steel of oxygen reactive elements are known to improve the adhesion of α-Al2O3 scales. In this work hafnium and zirconium were added to the aluminium foil before roll bonding and their behaviour during the diffusion bonding was evaluated. This novel doping method was proven to be effective in improving scale adhesion and alloy lifetime. Moreover it allows to overcome problems related to steel alloying with reactive elements and reduces the quantity of expensive reactive elements that needs to be added to the steel foil.

Abstract: Fibre Bragg Gratings (FBGs) are optical strain gages manufactured directly inside the fiber core. They provide several advantages with respect to conventional strain gages. In particular it is possible to put several FBGs along the same fibre (multiplexing), they are immune to corrosive environments and to electromagnetic interferences. They can be embedded in almost all types of materials and are very useful in Structural Health Monitoring. An innovative approach for testing specimens in this area is reported in this work. An aluminium alloy 2024-T3 CT specimen has been manufactured with one small feed-through hole and a superficial groove. Two FBG sensors, multiplexed on the same fibre, have been glued one inside the hole and one inside the groove. Fatigue test has been carried out monitoring the crack length both with standard measure system and with the FBG strain sensors placed in front of the crack tip.